This invention relates to a mixer apparatus, and in particular to a rotary mixer apparatus having integral therewith an open top tank wherein a liquid can be housed and heated and wherein materials being mixed can be simultaneously heated as they travel through the heated liquid.
It is many times desirable to simultaneously mix and heat materials in order to place these materials in condition for further treatment, testing, or the like. When a flowable material such as a liquid or a quantity of discrete particles is to be mixed and heated, one common apparatus employed is a stirring propeller disposed within a vessel housing the flowable material. This propeller can be secured at the end of a rotatable shaft which enters the vessel, or it can be a magnetized propeller or stirring bar whose rotation can be controlled exteriorly from the vessel. The vessel itself can be heated by placing it on a hot plate or in a tank such as a water bath containing heated liquid.
As is evident, however, employing mixing vessels which are stationary, either on hot plates or within a tank, significantly reduces the number of vessels which can be heated at one time. Further, because of the usual size of a stirring bar or propeller, the size of the vessel must be relatively large in order to accommodate both the bar or propeller and the amount of material required to render an adequate volume of medium for effective stirring. Inherent in the latter requirement is the usual inability to adequately mix relatively small amounts of material.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a heatable mixer apparatus where heating and mixing of relatively small amounts of material can be accomplished without propellers or stirring bars. Another object of the present invention is to provide a heatable mixer apparatus whereby a plurality of mixing vessels can be subjected to mixing and heating in a relatively small planar space. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a heatable mixer apparatus wherein mixing speed as well as temperature can be selectively controlled, and wherein heat is provided by a liquid heated within an open top tank through which materials to be mixed and heated travel. These and other objects of the invention will become apparent throughout the description which now follows.